A multispectral or thermal imager comprising a lens assembly, an array of IC chips that is arranged in a field of view of the lens assembly, each IC chip comprising an array of thermopile devices, and a filter assembly comprising one or more wavelength filters. The filter assembly comprises a respective wavelength filter for at least one of the three or more rows of IC chips. At least one wavelength filter is transparent in a portion of a wavelength range that passes through the lens assembly. The filter assembly is configured such that radiation of the same wavelength range passes to the rows of IC chips in the pair of non-adjacent rows, and such that the wavelength range that passes to the rows in the pair of non-adjacent rows is different from a wavelength range that passes to the one or more rows other than the pair of non-adjacent rows.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
2. The thermal imager according to claim 1, wherein the wavelength range of radiation that can pass to the rows of IC chips in the pair of non-adjacent rows of IC chips spans at least two thirds of the wavelength range of radiation that can pass through the lens assembly.
3. The thermal imager according to claim 1, wherein the wavelength range of radiation that can pass to the rows of IC chips in the pair of non-adjacent rows of IC chips is larger than the wavelength range of radiation that can pass to the one or more rows of IC chips other than the pair of non-adjacent rows of IC chips by at least 50 percent.
4. The thermal imager according to claim 1, wherein the wavelength range of radiation that can pass to the rows of IC chips in the pair of non-adjacent rows of IC chips spans the full wavelength range of radiation that can pass through the lens assembly.
6. The thermal imager according to claim 1, wherein a wavelength range of radiation that can pass through the lens assembly is partitioned by the wavelength filters of the filter assembly.
7. The thermal imager according to claim 1, wherein the array of IC chips is a rectangular or circular array.
8. The thermal imager according to claim 1, wherein the filter assembly is arranged at a predetermined distance from the array of IC chips.
9. The thermal imager according to claim 1, wherein the thermal imager is suitable for use in at least one of a satellite, an airplane, or an unmanned aerial vehicle.
10. A satellite comprising the thermal imager according to claim 1.
11. The satellite according to claim 10, wherein the thermal imager is arranged such that it faces Earth's surface and the rows of IC chips are oriented in perpendicular to a plane spanned by a flight direction of the satellite and a perpendicular to Earth's surface.
12. The satellite according to claim 10, wherein a sample frequency for capturing readout signals of the array of IC chips is set in dependence on an orbital period of the satellite and a length along a ground track of the satellite of a field of view, projected on Earth's surface, of each row of IC chips.
13. The satellite according to claim 10, wherein a sample frequency for capturing readout signals of the array of IC chips is set such that a field of view, projected on Earth's surface, of a leading row of IC chips at a given sample timing substantially coincides with a field of view, projected on Earth's surface, of an n-th row of IC chips from the leading row of IC chips at an n-th sample timing subsequent to the given sample timing, where n is an integer ranging from 2 to N−1, with N being the number of rows of IC chips in the array of IC chips.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
December 20, 2019
February 13, 2024
Browse 5M+ US patents with plain-English claim translations and AI-generated analysis.